Ghosts of The Past
by lady-warrioress
Summary: 2007 doomed timeline: A collage student investigating the disaster of 1983 makes her way to Hinamizawa to find out the truth about what happened that day. But someone or something doesn't want her finding out... will a Rena, now in her 30s, be willing to help before its too late?
1. Prologue

_In the year 1983 in the village of Hinamizawa had three known disasters. The fifth year of a series of deaths and disappearances which took the lives of a known photographer and nurse, a hostage situation and bomb scare are the local school, and the Great Hinamizawa Disaster which took the lives of every resident of the small town save for one. A girl known as Ry__ūgū Rena who was responsible for the bomb scare and hostage situation of the school. She had been put into custody the evening before and was nowhere near the village when the disaster took place. The official story was a gas leak caused by an active volcano that killed the residents in their sleep. _

_However there are rumors of a more sinister explanation... _

**October 1st, year 2007. 34 years after the Disaster. **

Suki Homeo sat down at her desk in her dorm room and booted up her laptop, brushing a strand of her dark purple hair out of her green eyes as she sat back with a sigh. Her professor had announced that afternoon that, due to the upcoming holiday, the students would do a paper on something related to the supernatural. He said it didn't matter what it was about as long as it was a details analysis on a paranormal phenomena either in the country or around the world.

"As if that makes it any easier for me," she muttered to herself as she clicked on the browser. "There's just way too much to choose from."

She typed 'paranormal' into the search bar and was greeted with page after page of paranormal related websites for any story of her choice. There was even a smattering of urban legends in the blue, highlighted choices on the screen.

Sighing, she scrolled down the list of sites, reading off stories she'd read or heard about. They were obvious choices and had probably already been taken by other students.

No, if she wanted a good grade she would have to choose something original. But what? What would be unique enough to give her a chance to make a good grade and learn something new in the process?

She clicked to another page and continued scrolling, searching for just the right topic, and then she saw it. At the bottom of the sixteenth page.

Her face lit up in a smile and she clicked the link.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Rena Ryuguu knew she was about to be put on the spot even before the the collage student carrying the notebook got out of her car. It wasn't even complicated to figure out exactly why the girl was there either, especially since she'd discussed the reason for it on the phone the previous evening. The woman also knew she didn't want to talk to her about it anymore, and was already trying to come up with a good excuse for why she couldn't.

When the girl rung the doorbell, she winced.

What should she do? she asked herself as the girl rang the bell again. Pretend she wasn't there? It sounded like a good idea. All she had to do was wait for the girl to go away and then she'd be just fine.

The girl started knocking now and Rena even heard her call her out by her name. "Miss Ryuguu?" the girl shouted. "if your home could you please answer the door? I want to ask you a couple of questions about what we discussed on the phone."

Rena stayed where she was, having no intention of answering that door. She kept mentally pleading for the girl to go away.

"Please, Miss Ryuguu," the girl continued to implore. "I just want to talk to you for a few minutes."

Rena still refused to answer the door but by now a voice in her head started to tell her if she didn't, the girl would just come back later. She wouldn't be able to avoid the student forever, besides, she had promised to let the girl interview her when they'd spoken on the phone.

But that was then and this was now. She'd thought about it and decided she wasn't ready to talk about what had happened. She'd done it enough already and didn't want to bring up those memories again.

The knocking continued and Rena stayed in her chair, waiting for the girl to leave.

00000

Suki stopped knocking, frowning at the closed door. Why wasn't Miss Ryuguu answering? Her car was in the parking lot so it couldn't be that she wasn't home, unless she'd gone out to visit a neighbor. That made no sense, though. They'd scheduled this meeting on the phone the night before. She couldn't have gone out without letting the girl know, right?

_But what if she changed her mind?_ she asked herself.

Rena hadn't sounded all that happy to hear from the girl to begin with when she'd called her. It had taken a lot of persuasion just to convince her to let her come over. If she'd gotten cold feet and changed her mind...

The student couldn't blame her, but a little voice in her head insisted that Rena hadn't gone off somewhere after all, that she was in the house and simply hiding and waiting for the girl to leave. If that was so, it left a very odd impression on the girl about the woman. Only children hid and mostly when they did something wrong. As far as Suki knew the woman in the house hadn't done a single thing wrong in a long time.

So why was she hiding now?

"Memories," Suki said to herself. "I guess she doesn't want to relive them."

Maybe it would be a good idea to leave her be for now and try to set up another interview later on, when Rena was more willing to talk about it.

"All right, Miss Ryuguu!" she called into the house. "I'm going! You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to!" she then turned away and headed down the stairs to her car.

Suki hadn't taken more than two steps when she heard the front door open and Rena call out softly. "Wait."

She paused and looked over her shoulder. "Hmm?"

Rena stood in the doorway, staring down at the young collage student. "You don't have to leave," she said, walking down the porch stairs toward her. "I'll talk to you."

The girl turned to her, uncertain. "Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked her, cautiously. "I mean you don't have to."

"I want to," Rena informed her. "Come in."

Suki, though a little confused, turned and retraced her steps into the house, leaving her shoes by the door, before following the older woman into the small living room. Rena waved for her to sit down on the sofa before turning and heading into the kitchen to make some tea.

The student looked around the living room as she sat, noticing how bare the place seemed. In what little she'd discovered about this woman, she'd learned that she loved cute things and hoarded it. Seeing nothing was somewhat surprising, given what she'd read from websites about the case and she wondered if the Ryuguu woman had thrown away what used to bring her joy. That made the incidents from thirty years ago even more depressing.

A moment later Rena returned to the living room, carrying a tray of tea for herself and the girl. Suki thanked her as the older woman handed her her cup before sitting down.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," Suki told her after taking a sip. "When I spoke with you on the phone you didn't seem very willing to and, just now, when you didn't answer the door..."

Rena looked down at her tea. "I almost didn't," she admitted quietly.

"I understand," the girl said sincerely. "What changed your mind, though?"

Rena continued to look down at her tea as she said. "You wouldn't have given up so easily, would you?"

Suki felt herself blush with embarrassment. "No, I don't think I would have," she admitted.

The woman nodded. "I didn't think so."

"Oh pardon me!" Suki exclaimed. "Sorry! I know that would have been rude but, you see, I just am searching for the truth about what happened and none of the sites I checked had much information. Most of it was just speculation, you see?"

Rena looked up at her. "What do you plan on doing with it?" she asked

"Huh? With what?"

"The information."

"Well..." now she looked into her own tea. "It's for a paper I'm doing for my journalistic class. We have to do a story about unexplained paranormal phenomena."

"Why did you choose the Hinawizawa Disaster for this paper?" Rena questioned her.

"To be honest, I wanted to do something different."

The older woman frowned. "Different?"

"Like I told you on the phone, it's something not many people seemed to willing to look into. Yes, there are many stories and theories about what happened but nothing too detailed. I started to wonder why while I did my research and decided I dig deeper." she sipped her tea again just for soemthing to do. "It took me a long time to learn about you, no one really seemed to want to find you."

"There's a reason for that."

"There is?"

Rena nodded and Suki thought she saw a haunted look briefly pass over the woman's face. "I didn't want to be reminded of it."

Suki nodded. Rena had expressed that firmly on the phone as well. "I understand," she told her. "I'm sure it was a very traumatic experience for you."

Rena nodded slowly in agreement. "And now you want me to talk about this for your paper?"

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to," Suki reminded her.

"I do," she said firmly.

"You sure about that?"

The red head nodded so Suki figured she'd be doing this with her as a type of therapy. It might just make things better for her.

The girl set down her tea cup then reached into her bag and pulled out a pad and a pencil. "Shall we begin then?"

Rena also set down her tea as she readied herself for the girl's questions. "Where do you wish for me to start?" she asked her.

"How about the beginning?"

Rena paused to collect her thoughts. It lasted so long Suki started to wonder if she would ever answer the question.

"Well... it was about two weeks before the Festival," she began after a moment. "My friends and I had just finished one of our club activities..."

Thus Rena began her story, a somewhat abridged version of the actually evens. As she spoke Suki wrote it all down though a tiny voice in her mind told her the woman wasn't telling the entire story. Something was being left out and she felt it was important.

Once she finished her story Suki began her questions. "So, after the festival the fifth murder took place as it did every year?" she asked to clarify.

Rena nodded. "Just as it had been for the past five years."

"So it wasn't much of surprise then."

The woman shook her head sadly. "No, I just didn't really expect it to end as badly as it did..."

_I apologize for taking so long to update this story. I'm having a bit of a problem figuring out how to get from point A to point B. I know where I want to go but filling in the gaps ifs a big complicated. If you're willing to give me some suggestions I'd be more than happy to receive them. _


End file.
